New Zealand economist wants you to get rid of your cat

It’s not that Gareth Morgan doesn’t like cats. It’s that he thinks your kitty is a “natural born killer.” A killer, specifically, of birds. And so, Morgan thinks, the cats have to go.

Morgan’s Cats To Go website implores other New Zealanders to neuter their cats and not get a new one when the current Mr. Puss passes away. You don’t “necessarily” have to have the cat euthanized, he says, but “that is an option.” And if you must have a cat, for god’s sake at least keep it inside.

His main concern, Morgan says, is for New Zealand’s diverse species of birds. Fox News reports:

For thousands of years, New Zealand’s native birds had no predators and flourished. Some species, like the kiwi, became flightless. But the arrival of mankind and its introduction of predators like cats, dogs and rodents has wiped out some native bird species altogether and endangered many others.

“Imagine a New Zealand teeming with native wildlife, penguins on the beach, kiwis roaming about in your garden,” Morgan writes on his website. “Imagine hearing birdsong in our cities.”

We’re going to go out on a limb and say that cats aren’t the only force keeping birds out of cities. Morgan’s campaign might not be entirely unreasonable, but it’s not getting much traction. Cat people tend to like their cats more than they like most humans — especially Gareth Morgan — and they don’t necessarily care much about stupid tweeting dinosaurs, either.